Bali animal welfare societies battle rabies outbreak

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

 

 

Bali animal welfare societies battle rabies outbreak

 

DENPASAR, Bali--Someone brought a rabid dog to Bali.

Yachting, fishing, or trading goods, the culprit apparently came

by boat, docking near Ungasan village, where about 170 families

live on a peninsula forming the southernmost part of Bali.

The rabid dog arrived at about the same time that more than

200 animal advocates from nearly 30 nations met at Sanur Beach, just

to the north, for the Asia for Animals 2008 conference. The last

visiting delegates had just left when the first human victims were

bitten in mid-September 2008.

The bite victims did not seek immediate post-exposure

vaccination. Between November 14 and November 23, 2008, four

victims died at hospitals in Denpasar and Badung: a 32-year-old, a

28-year-old, an 8-year-old, and another child whose age was not

disclosed.

Containing the outbreak should have been easy. Fences,

runways, and access roads surrounding the Ngurah Rai Airport inhibit

dog movement between Ungasan and the heavily populated southeastern

part of Bali, including Denpasar, the capital city.

The Yudisthira Swarga Foundation, Bali Street Dog

Foundation, and Bali Animal Welfare Association have among them

sterilized nearly 40,000 dogs in southeastern Bali during the past 10

years. If the Bali government had allowed the animal welfare

societies to vaccinate the dogs against rabies at the same time they

were sterilized, in accordance with international protocol, a

barrier of already vaccinated dogs would have combined with the

isolation of Ungasan to prevent any likelihood of the outbreak

spreading.

A vaccination drive targeting all dogs on the Ungasan/Ululatu

peninsula, combined with euthanizing any dogs showing signs of

exposure, might then have extinguished the outbreak within a matter

of days.

Instead, the 40,000 sterilized dogs were not vaccinated

against rabies because Balinese officials mistakenly believed the

vaccine might itself introduce the disease.

" Unfortunately, the Balinese government has been

short-sighted in not permitting the distribution of the rabies

vaccine across Bali, and by turning a blind eye to the illegal

importation of animals into Bali, " acknowledged BAWA acting

operations manager Dani Stokeld in a post to the Asian Animal

Protection Network. " Only one hospital in Bali maintained a minimal

stock of the human post-exposure rabies vaccine, and the government

has not allowed any rabies vaccine for pets to be imported to Bali. "

" Bali has been free of rabies for decades; we haven't had

any need for a vaccine in the island, " BAWA spokesperson Tinneke

Indrajaya told the Jakarta Post. " So the Bali animal advocates did

not push hard against the ban on importing rabies vaccine.

There was little initial panic when rabies appeared,

indicated Jakarta Post reporter Andra Wisnu. The Badung Health

Agency obtained enough human post-exposure vaccine to treat another

76 Ungasan residents who had been bitten by dogs in the preceding two

months. Yudisthira Swarga Foundation volunteers euthanized 11 dogs

found in the vicinity of the biting incidents by lethal injection,

and sent their heads to be tested for rabies at a laboratory in West

Java. Other agencies killed another six dogs, whose heads were also

sent for testing.

Only one dog turned out to have been rabid. But Bali

governor Made Mangku Pastika on November 29, 2008 " ordered the

Balinese people to conduct a mass culling of stray dogs, " reported

Ni Komang Erviani of the Jakarta Post.

" Residents can just go ahead by taking the initiative to

kill stray dogs. If the mass dog culling relied only on government

officials, it would take too long, " Pastika told a public forum.

" Pastika also demanded the strict supervision of the

entrance of other animals into Bali, like monkeys and cats, which

transmit diseases to human beings, " Ni Komang Erviani added.

Word of Pastika's edicts appeared on the International

Society for Infectious Diseases' Pro-Med online bulletin board five

days later.

" This method of disease control does not work, "

objected Alliance for Rabies Control executive director Deborah K.

Briggs. " For example, officials on Flores Island, " like Bali a

part of Indonesia, " tried to eliminate a canine rabies outbreak

eight years ago by killing over 500,000 dogs, yet rabies is still

present on that island. Similarly, when canine rabies spread to the

region of Sulawesi in Indonesia approximately five years later, mass

culling of dogs was again attempted without successfully eliminating

rabies.

" On the other hand, mass vaccination of dogs

against rabies does work, " Briggs emphasized.

" There are many countrywide examples proving that when the

World Health Organization recommendation of vaccinating 70% of the

dog population against rabies is applied, the spread of rabies

throughout the dog population is stopped. Excellent examples of

successful programs exist in Latin America, where the Pan American

Health Organization spearheaded mass canine vaccination programs

throughout the continent, resulting in a dramatic reduction in the

prevalence of both canine rabies and human rabies.

" Similar success has been reported in Africa, "

Briggs continued, " for example in Tanzania, where mass canine

rabies vaccination cleared rabies from the community dog population

surrounding the Serengeti region, protecting endangered wildlife

within the park.

" The tools to prevent the existence and spread of rabies in

dogs already exist and have been proven to work, " Briggs finished.

" They only need to be utilized. "

Supporting testimony came from Henry Wilde, M.D., of the

Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Medicine in Bangkok, Thailand,

who visited Flores on behalf of WHO.

" Fisherman had imported three dogs, and with them, rabies, "

Wilde recalled. " Within one year, over 100 humans died on this

island of about one million human population. A local decision was

made to cull as many dogs as possible, " contrary to Wilde's advice

to vaccinate the dogs instead.

Wilde noted that the custom of dog-eating persists among the

Christian population of Flores. Dog-eaters often believe that dogs

who have been vaccinated against rabies cannot be eaten safely.

After his Flores visit, Wilde remembered, " I met with a

health official in Bali who expressed great anxiety that some similar

event might happen there. His fear was justified, " Wilde concluded.

" Culling alone does not work! "

At a November 30 strategy meeting chaired by Bali director

general of disease control and environmental health Tjandra Yoga

Aditama, " officials from animal husbandry agencies, the Bali Health

Agency, police, tourism offices, community health centers, the

state-run Sanglah Hospital, and other related institutions, " agreed

to " cull stray dogs and vaccinate domesticated dogs in areas 10

kilometers from Ungasan and Kedonganan villages, " reported Luh De

Suriyani and Hyginus Hardoyo of the Jakarta Post Denpasar bureau.

Kedonganan is at the neck of the Ungasan/Ululatu peninsula.

" At least 20,000 doses of rabies vaccine for dogs have been

sent from Jakarta, " Luh De Suriyani and Hyginus Hardoyo added. " Dog

owners are encouraged to fence their dogs so they are not infected by

sick animals. "

Luh De Suriyani quoted Yudisthira Swarga Found-ation

veterinarian Rina Dwiasih's recommendation against poisoning dogs.

" The government has commenced a rabies vaccine program for

dogs, but only for dogs in the infected area, " affirmed Stokeld.

" Sadly, there are reports of the culling of healthy Bali street

dogs, and poisoning has commenced on the beaches in the tourist area

of Kuta, " the first village north of the airport.

" BAWA is trying to form a coalition with other animal welfare

organisations and the Bali Vet Association to lobby the government to

act responsibly and to take a more pragmatic approach, " Stokeld

said. " We would like to see the government support a Bali-wide

vaccination and de-sexing program for dogs and cats; public

education about responsible pet ownership and zoonoses; and pass

the animal welfare laws that have been sitting in the Indonesian

legislature for years. "

" We have been assisting the farm department to administer

rabies vaccines in the Bukit area, " BAWA founder Janice Girardi told

ANIMAL PEOPLE, but as of December 5, she said, she had been unable

to get a meeting with Pastika.

" At the moment we are trying to get enough human vaccines for

all of our staff, " Girardi added. " Of course we need to increase

the amount of sterilization we do, especially north of the infected

areas, to keep the dogs from straying. As if animal welfare wasn't

hard enough in Bali, without laws, with rabies life just got even

harder.

" There are many pet stores in that area, " Girardi noted,

" so we will try to inspect the pet shops and warn all the owners.

I'd love to get the pet shops closed down. Often we see many dogs

together in a small cage, out in the hot sun with no water. We can

give the animals water, and try to educate the employees, but

without animal welfare laws nothing will really change. "

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,

founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.

We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]